the Duke of Newburgh at least for having not wherewith to bear the Charge of the Marriage of his Son with the Emperor's Sister without being restored to the Dutchies of Juliers and Berg which could not at least so speedily be effected without a Peace what wonder is it that this Prince hath for the time past being forced by his Necessities joyned with that part of the Emperor's Council that was for Peace and assisted them in perswading His Imperial Majesty to sign it on any Condition Nor can it appear strange if this Prince for the suture joyn with the same Council and use all his Credit and Interest with His Imperial Majesty never to enter into a War with France though he have never so great Reason for it For when wants and Necessities enter in at the Door Honour and Friendship flyeth out at the windows His Highness of Lorrain to give him his due hath done bravely on his occasion having generously chosen to run the Risque of losing all rather than sign so shameful and unjust a Peace as that proposed to him by France And I shall be very much deceived if he or his recover not their Estates rather by this than any other Conduct For Revolutions are Common to all and I have particular Reasons to believe it may one day happen so in the Affairs of his Highness This I think is more than sufficient to Evince that His Imperial Majesty hath been basely betrayed by his Council My next business is to shew by what sort of People he hath been chiefly betrayed and with what Covers they have guilded those Pills which they have made this Good and August Prince swallow from time to time To find the bottom of this business we must look a great way back as far as the beginning of the War which France by Concert with England the Elector of Cologne the Duke of Newburgh and the Bishop of Munster made against the United Provinces in 1672. After several Alliances with the Deceased Elector of Bavaria and Duke of Hanover and others which were but too visible during that War Several pretences have been made use of to colour that Rupture but the truth is it was fomented only by the Court of Rome and the Jesuits To give your Highness full and clear satisfaction in this particular be pleased to permit me to put you in mind that a little before the breaking out of that War his Royal Highness of Savoy Deceased having taken his Measures with the Court and Council of France made open War against the Republick of Genoa The Court of Rome wisely judging the Duke of Savoy would not have engaged in that Enterprize without assurance before hand of Succour and Protection from France if needful and that those petty Sparks might raise a General Conflagration in Italy which in time might draw over thither all the French Forces and consequently expose that Country to inevitable Ruin that subtil and cunning Court to save themselves from the storm applied themselves seriously In the First place to put an end upon any terms to the War between the Duke and the Republick which Monsieur Gaumont soon after effected In the next place being sensible what formidable Forces His Most Christian Majesty had then on foot and that that Monarch could not forbear breaking out into a new War the Court of Rome resolved to use all their endeavours to divert from themselves and their Neighbours the Effects of the French Arms and cause them to fall on some other Country of Europe the most remote that might be from Italy and where it might be most Convenient for the Interest of the Pope The Jesuits having given directions to this purpose the affair was manag'd with that subtilty the Storm fell altogether on the United Provinces the Court of Rome assuring it self that if that Republique were once destroy'd the whole Protestant Party would naturally come to ruin and the Papal Authority in a short time recover it's primitive Grandeur and Glory Great Obstacles were quickly discovered against the carrying on this mighty Project The most Christian King who clearly saw what the Court of Rome aim'd at was or pretended to be unwilling to engage in Open War against the United Provinces but on two Conditions First That the Court of Rome should secretly consent and give way that he might if he could joyn the Provinces of the Spanish Netherlands and Lorrain with what he could Conquer from the States of the United Provinces to form or restore the Ancient Kingdom of Austrasia Secondly that the Court of Rome should assure him to their Power to procure his Majesty and the Dauphin who was designed the New King of Austrasia the Imperial Crown As to the point of the Spanish Netherlands it must be observ'd that to bring about the Design it was absolutely necessary to manage his Majesty of Great Brittain whose interests there were very considerable and there could be no hopes to give him satisfaction without Sacrificing to him something very considerable of what belong'd to the Spaniard It would have been almost impossible for any but the Jesuits Interests so different to reconcile and overcome so great and Numerous Difficulties The two Branches of the most August House of Austria had heap'd most considerable Favours and showed their Bounties on the Society of Jesuits But when they are concerned for the Grandeur of the Pope and the Interests of the Miter which by the way the Society looks on with the same Ardour a young Prince in Love would eye the advantages the Glory and Interests of a Beautiful and rich Queen whom he made no doubt but he should one day enjoy all Thoughts and memory of the favours received from the August Family are wholly laid aside on that occasion the Jesuits fell immdiately to find out Expedients for two Reasons full of Justice and Equity according to the Politick Maxims of that Blessed Society The first was that whereas the House of Austria in the present Conjuncture was notoriously unable to raise the Roman Bishops to their former Estate of Grandeur and Glory and that there was not any but His most Christian Majesty who by his Forces and Interests could work this kind of Miracle it was absolutely necessary to remove all Difficulties and Obstacles that might hinder the effecting an enterprise so Profitable and Glorious The Second That in case the Design should take effect the Society was assured of having in recompence of their pains two great Abbies Heads of their Orders the one in the Ancient Kingdom of France the other in the New Conquests Which Abbys were to be added to the vast Patrimony of this Society besides the assurances they had by the protection of France to obtain a Settlement in Amsterdam and elsewhere Upon these Grounds they procur'd the Treaties to be privately sign'd between France and Rome and between France and England by vertue whereof the War was quickly begun against the United Provinces I pass over in
silence the satisfaction his Majesty of Great Brittain was to have as impertinent to my present business It may be observed that as under the Reign of Philip the second France was to have been made as far as it lay in the Power of Rome a Sacrifice to the Interests of the Papal Miter and the Monarch of Spain 't is now become the turn of the most August House of Austria according to this Project to be Sacrificed to the interests of the Papacy the Jesuits and his most Christian Majesty And that as the principal design of the Jesuits and of France was the absolute destruction of the Protestant Party it was from hence it proceeded that a League was form'd and sign'd by most of the Catholick Princes of Germany and incorporated into the Treaties above mention'd wherein every of the Confederates had or at least thought to have had his design and compass'd his ends as afterwards appear'd Hence also it proceeded that France having anciently had very strict alliances with the Protestant Princes of Germany conceal'd very carefully the present design from all its ancient Allyes of that Communion The Court of Rome and the Society as carefully conceal'd it from both branches of the House of Austria and all this for reasons than which nothing is more easily apprehended For the same reason it was that in the beginning of this War nothing was omitted by the Popes Nuncio the Jesuits and their Emissaries to lull asleep the Councils of Vienna and Madrid and that afterwards they did with all possible diligence reveal to the Ministers of France all they could discover of the deliberations of the Imperial Council or the Spanish For the same reason it was that his Imperial Majesty by the clear Remonstrances of the Elector of Brandenbourgh being made sensible of the Trap cunningly laid for him by the French and having commanded an Army to joyn with that Elector on the Rhine those Emissaries of Rome laid all their heads together and for their Master-piece to carry on the Design effected two things The first was the Rebellion of the Male Contents in Hungary not yet Suppressed whereby they endeavour'd if possible to give the Emperour so strong a diversion that it might not be in his Power to assist his Allies The second I have from an Anonimous Author of an Essay of the Interest of the Protestant Princes and States Printed in the year 1676. and treating of several things in this respect very considerable The Author in my Opinion deserves the more Credit in that he hath lash'd the Society to some purpose in his Discourse yet not one of it's Patrons or Partisans hath undertook to refute him The account he gives of the first Campaign I will repeat Word for Word from the Original as very sutable to my purpose In the Year 1672. when the Arms of France were so prosperous that all Europe looked on the States of the United Provinces as very near Destruction His Electoral Highness of Brandenbourgh wisely foreseeing the Consequences to be expected from the Ambitious Enterprizes of France if not stopped in time gained himself the Reputation not only of having been the first Prince of Christendom who drew his Sword in Protection of that broken State but by vigorous Remonstrances to the Court of Vienna was the cause that His Imperial Majesty awaking out of the Lethargy some corrupt Counsellors had cast him into resolved to Arm vigorously and joyn with his Electoral Highness in Defence of that Republique His Electoral Highness in pursuance of this Resolution being advanc'd towards the Rhine with a considerable Army and Count Montecuculi being on his way thither in the Head of an Imperial Army with design to act jointly and to do something considerable in favour of the Republique France allarm'd by the March of the two German Armies had detach'd Marshal Turenne with a Body of an Army to observe the motions of the other two But by the several Marches and Counter-Marches these two Armies had made especially that of Brandenbourgh sometimes making as if they would pass the Rhine in several places sometimes in being ready to fall upon the Allies of France beyond the Rhine Turennes Army was so tyr'd out and harassed that about the end of the Campaign it was almost quite dissipated and found it self in so miserable a Condition that 't is certain all Turenne was able to do was to be on the defensive against one of those Armies and that if both Armies had join'd Turenne had been inevitably lost as was publickly confest His Electoral Highness of Brandenburgh knowing how easie it was to destroy Turenne and the Consequence of his Defeat caused a vigorous Remonstrance of all to be made to the Council of Vienna it was so effectual that positive Orders were sent Montecuculi to join his Electoral Highness and Fight Turenne without further loss of time which would have broken all the open and hidden Measures of France and by one blow freed the Empire and Holland from Oppression But other matters were in hand for the Interest of Rome His Majesty of Great Brittain had permitted himself to be perswaded to publish about that time a Declaration whereof he made Report to his Parliament whereby a Tolleration and Indulgence was granted in favour of the Nonconformists of his Kingdom Though it may be thought it was not so much for favouring the particular Conventicles of the Sectaries of the Protestant Party as under the name of Non-Conformists to introduce Popery again into that Estate though contrary to the Designs and Intentions of His Majesty who granted it only in favour of the tender Consciences of his Protestant Subjects This Step towards Popery being the First Fruits the Court of Rome had promised it self from the Ruin of the States of the United Provinces 't is no wonder that Court set all hands at work to effect that Ruin The then principal Obstacles of the Design was the Resolution of His Electoral Highness against Turenne the Destruction of his Army being capable to Re-establish the States of the United Provinces and that Re-establishment would have destroyed all the Projects of the Jesuits in England Here it was the Jesuits plaid their part to prevent the blow from fallin on Turenne and they acted it too well for the general Good of Europe for Montecuculi instead of receiving Express Order to joyn Brandenbourgh's Army and fight Turenne received Orders quite contrary whereby he was absolutely forbidden to do the one or the other To drive this Nail to the head the venerable Society whose impudence nothing can parallel made it their business several ways to infuse into his Electoral Highness a jealousie of the Emperour as insincere in his intentions this was effected with the greater facility for that his E. H. of Brandenbourgh having received from the Court of Vienna a formal Letter which gave him an exact account of the true order his Imperial Majesty had sent Montecuculi to join him and fight
have dismist those Envoys from their Courts which had they done it would at least have taken away from the Emperours corrupt Council all pretence of rendring them suspitious to his Imperial Majesty and hastening him in pursuance of that suspition to sign the peace under Consideration To sum up all we may from what hath been said reasonably infer these three particulars First That his Imperial Majesty hath been basely betrayed by the greater part of his Council for I am not so malicious and unjust to confound the innocent with the guilty and not to make an exception out of the general clause in favour of those of his Council who are men of Integrity and Honour who in truth I think are very few and not much in Credit Secondly That his Imperial Majesty being so villanously betray'd by his Council the Empire in general and particular through the indissoluble union of the head and Members cannot but miserably participate the misfortune and sufferings of its Soveraign as is very well known by a fatal and too long experience Thirdly that 't is easie for his Imperial Majesty and the Empire to know whom they have equallly cause to complain of and from what Principle not only this Treason is derived but all the mischiefs that have afflicted Christendom for above an Age but especially the Empire since the beginning of the late War I say for above an Age as to the General because that which his most Christian Majesty instigated by the Jesuits undertakes in our days is but the same which by instigation of their predecessors Charles the first the Emperour Fardinand the Second and Philip the Second of Spain did in their days As to the Empire in particular I say since the beginning of the last War because 't is certain his Imperial Majesty hath been since that time by the means I have mentioned so closely beset and so strictly observed that 't is not in his power to speak to advise to wish or do any thing but the Society knows and absolutely destroys it if not suitable to their particular Interests and Designs There is not a person in the Emperor's Court but knows that no man without certain ruin dare oppose in that Court that Cabal in any matter though never so little To conclude this Point His Imperial Majesty as a Slave to the Society as things stand at present serves only to Authorize his own Ruin the Ruin of his August Family and of the Empire in general and particular For the very Moment I write France publickly solicits in the Empire as I said before the Nomination of a King of the Romans in favour of the Dauphin which in all probability will be managed with so much dexterity and subtilty that his Imperial Majesty if he follow the advice of his Council Spiritual or Temporal will think himself obliged in Conscience voluntarily to give way to it This my Lord is the true state of his Imperial Majesty and his Council since the last Peace Three things remain to be considered First The particular Advantages the Court of Rome and the Jesuits procured themselves by the late War Secondly What Advantages they design'd themselves by the late Peace and its consequences Thirdly What the Empire in general and particular may expect from the present state of Affairs The Advantages the Court of Rome and the Jesuits procured themselves by the late War have not been so great as they promised themselves for God having preserved the United Provinces whose utter Destruction they had projected 't is certain most of their Projects in England and elsewhere were defeated Yet the Advantages of the Papacy over the Protestant Party in the late War are very considerable and consist in five Particulars 1. That by the fire of War kindled by the Artifices of Rome and the Jesuits between England and the United Provinces those two Protestant Powers have unhappily consumed very considerable Forces in Men Money Ships Ammunition and loss of Trade the Soul and Substance of the Riches of both Countries 2. That the United Provinces have in defence of themselves against France and its Allies in Germany been forced to spend their Men and their Money besides loss of Trade during the War 3. That Swede Denmark Brandenbourgh and Zell have consumed their Forces during all this War kindled by the Artifices of the same Party between Swede and the three Princes of Denmark Brandenbourgh and Lunenbourgh both by Sea and Land 4. That under pretence of this War the Protestant States of the Empire as well during the Campaignes as by Winter-Quarters have been miserably harrassed and exhausted with Exactions Burnings Contributions to that degree that most of the Protestant Imperial Towns are almost ruined and several of them as well as the Palatinate and other Countries out of hopes of recovery in an Age while the Hereditary Countries and Bavaria and many other places of the Roman Communion in the Empire have been preserved as the Apple of an Eye or so little opprest they scarce feel it 5. That France by this War having conquered the County of Burgundy and kept it by the Peace free from Condition of Exchange it is to be observ'd that whereas this Province belonging heretofore to Spain was by reason of its distance from the heart of that Kingdom not in a condition to hurt the Protestant Cantons of the Swisses now that it belongs to France we art not to flatter our selves but it belongs to a Power which may every hour make a sudden irruption into the Canton of Bern and under the specious pretence of Religion put the Protestant and Roman Cantons in disorder and by degrees work their inevitable ruine unless that Republick have the Courage and Judgment to enter into confederacy with those that ought to preserve it from destruction which the building the Fortress of Hunningen may sufficiently instruct them is certainly intended them I reckon all these to be real advantages the Court of Rome and the Jesuits have by the last War procur'd themselves against the Protestant Party For where resolution is taken to ruine an Enemy under several heads the best way to effect it is to divide the Powers and engage them as much as may be in War one against another to the Consumption of their Forces and to fortifie your self on their Frontiers that you may make sudden Inroads into their Countries when you please The Court of Rome and the Jesuits by the Access they have had to the Council of France and the House of Austria and by the help of the Counsellors there and in the Protestant Courts have with great dexterity put these Maxims in practice during the late War For His Majesty of Swedland managed by France His Majesty of Denmark His Electoral Highness of Brandenbourgh and His Highness of Zell managed by the Imperial Court will take the pains to search to the bottom by what Motives and Artifices they have been all four engaged in a War which hath
the Daughter of a Burgo-Master of Colmar and hath been violently robb'd and intirely dispossest of his Dukedoms of Lorrain and Bar and several other Lands he held in Soveraignty being his Hereditary Estates and descended to him by unquestionable right of Succession Which others looked on with so little concern as if this Prince stript of all he could call his own had lost no more than a Ring or a Farm of a thousand Crowns value Seventhly That his Imperial Majesty and the Empire by Signing a Peace to give it its right Name so unbecoming and unworthy have raised the courage and hopes of the most Christian King to that height that he looks on both with so much indifference and scorn that he hath openly undertaken at once three things which I believe were ever heard of in the Empire at least when it had the advantage of a Head that had the least jealousie and care for its Glory The first that without any Lawful Mission the Emperor being young and in perfect Health he solicites vigorously the two Electors of the North side of the Empire for their Suffrage at the next Election of a King of the Romans I mention only these two Electors for as for the others he makes no doubt by fair means or by force to dispose of them as he shall think fit The second that as if he were dealing only with the Farmers of his Revenues or the Poysoners of Paris he hath by a Declaration erected at Metz as formerly at Brisak a Court compos'd according to the course of that Kingdom of a dozen Hangm where though the smallest Duke and Peer of France is not obliged to appear His most Christian Majesty as Judge and Party cites by some Catchpole of that Clandestine Jurisdiction Princes of the most ancient Illustrious Houses of the Empire which he hath nothing to do withall to make their appearance to give him Account by what right they possess what their Predecessors have for three or four hundred Years peaceably enjoyed This invention with the help of the Knight of the Post and a Map of the Country drawn out at pleasure but of the old fashion the better to colour the business is the ground of his pretensions that the greatest part of Lorrain the whole Dukedom of Deuxpents and the best part of Alsatia as far as Lauterbourgh are ancient Dependencies of the Bishopricks of Metz Toul and Verdun and must consequently be re-united to the Demeans of that Crown with as much ease as the Lands of some wretched Treasurers of France have been resumed by his Majesty The third is that to the end his new Paper-pretences may be as effectual as the right of devolution of the low Countries in 1667 and 1668. He hath upon the Frontiers on this side considerable Forces in readiness to Execute the Reunion or rather under that pretence to do what he shall think fit in the Empire when all this while neithe his Imperial Majesty nor any Prince of the Empire dares openly stir As if what hath already been done to the Duke of Lorrain and other Princes and Cities of the Empire in Alsatia were not only a certain presage but an unquestionable President whereby all other Princes and States of the Empire of what quality and degree soever may clearly see the Fortune of those Princes and States who have the misfortune to hold of that Crown or be Neighbours to its Dominions The consequences that naturally follow so untoward and so unhappy a State of Affairs will oblige us to Conclude Woe to his Imperial Majesty if he do not wholly alter his Conduct and God grant I speak not prophetically and truly as Micajah when I say His Imperial Majesty will dearly rue his trusting his Council with the direction and management of Affairs of this Nature And wo to His Imperial Majesty and the Empire they ever signed that false and fatal Peace whereby both will naturally fall unless God by special interposition prevent it under the slavery of that absolute and despotical Dominion Yet I would not be thought to be of Opinion that if all His Imperial Majesty's Council were such as it ought to be Affairs would be in that ill condition we find them but the greater part of that Council being weak or corrupted as I dare say it is we are not to doubt but if it continues things will still grow worse and worse I have been bold to say the greater part of the Imperial Council is Weak or Corrupt And to make my words good I will proceed by degrees from smaller matters to those of greatest importance to prove what I affirm by unquestionable Instances The first Instance Commissary General Capellier surpriz'd the Steward of his House in the very act of Traiterous Correspondence with the Minister of France to whom he gave an exact Account of all he could discover at his Master's House The Letters he sent to the French Minister and those he received from him were seized at the Imperial Post Office at Frankfort And though this happened in the heat of the War between the two Nations and the Traitor upon discovery of the matter was arrested and carried to Philipsbourgh From thence to Vienna yet he a Fellow worth nothing found at Court such powerful support that he was set at Liberty and cleared as a gallant Person The second Instance The Siege of Phillipsbourg being form'd by the Imperial Troops and those of the Circles and the place so much straitned that they began to want Powder in the Town two Brothers Burgesses of Franckfort corrupted by a French Minister undertook to buy several Waggon Loads of Powder in the Empire and to conveigh them into Phillipsbourg with other Ammunition But the Convoy for executing the Design having been surprized by the Imperialists and one of the Rogues taken and sent to Vienna he was not long there but he was set at liberty as a very honest Fellow The third Instance He that commanded in Fribourgh when taken by Marshal Crequi could not deny himself notoriously guilty of Cowardice or Treason being arrested for his Crimes and carried first to Inspruck and thence to Vienna he was look'd upon as a Sacrifice necessary to be offer'd to expiate so hainous an offence against Equity Policy and the Discipline of War but because he was related to a principal Minister or rather because a Great One was afraid he might if put hard to it make some discoveries He was fully acquitted and cleared from all that was laid to his charge and in such a manner that he retired home as confident and unconcerned as ever the French Governour of Phillipsbourgh could have done after the generous defence he made of the Post he commanded The Fourth Instance The Duke of Saxe Eisnach having had the Command of a little Army on the Rnine being an active and brave Prince neglected not any thing that might conduce to the worthy discharging the Duty of his place those of the Imperial
Council who took part with France having designs contrary to those of that Prince were as active on the other side by close and sudden wayes to bring two things to pass The first was to raise and establish a mis-understanding between this Prince and his Highness of Lorrain Commander in chief of the great Army of the Empire The Second was to order the distribution of Ammunition necessary for the Army in such a manner that when it was provided of one sort it should certainly want another When it had Cannon it wanted Carriages and when it had both these it should have neither Powder nor Bullet And to give those of the Council their due their designs took effect to admiration for the whole story of that Campaign is in short no more but a misunderstanding between these Princes and want of Ammunition But this was not enough for the malice of these Emissaries they poceeded further to hire one under the name of Dela Magdelaine who having been instructed by the Major Domo of the Abbot S. Gall of whom we shall have occasion to speak hereafter was set on to seduce and surprize this Prince In a word he came to the Duke of Saxe Eysenach to propose to him the surprizal of a Fortress belonging to France in the higher Alsatia The proposal was guilded over with so much probability of success that the Duke animated with zeal to do something great for the Glory of his Imperial Majesty and the Interest of his Country greedily hearkned and quickly embraced the proposal After some necessary precautions for the Enterprise Duneewald was commanded to undertake the Execution and having in the Action discovered the Cheat the Duke us'd his endeavours to have the Criminal Arrested But all to no purpose for the Major Domo had already secured him in a place of safety I make no doubt but every one will grant me this Rogue deserved death and had not any colour of pretence to find esteem or safety in the Empire But it proved quite otherwise upon his Capitulation I mean that with the Major Domo for the Rogue having play'd this excellent trick had the impudence to go to the Emperours Court where he was very well received and highly treated and sent thence to Breslaw where Count Shaftkutsch President of the Imperial Chamber in Silesia pays him constantly by order from above annually a considerable Pension This arrant Cheat goes now as formerly under the Name of Cygale and gives out he is a-kin to the Grand Signior But it hath been made appear in France and England that he is a Native of Maldavia and was Groom to a Prince of that Country This is the true Character of him the rest that is said of him are but inventions of Jesuits and Monks who go snips with him in the Presents he receives on his Lying pretences I have been more particular in my account to your Highness of this Fellow to arm you the better against a surprize by his Fictions and Artifices which he continues to practise every day in hope to get something from those he can impose upon The Fifth Instance By what I have said formerly of Swizzerland it may appear of what importance it may be to the Emperor and Empire to make that Republick sensible of their true interest and treat with them for a League and Union of Forces in defence of the Common Liberty and to bring this about to employ in the Negotiation Persons not only capable and faithful but acceptable to those they are to treat with Yet as if the Emperor's Council made it their business to do in this as other particulars only what may gain them the favour or the Gold of His most Christian Majesty 'T is fit to know the Person the Emperor's Council employs in all those important Negotiations they have with that Republick It is no other than the Abbot S. Gall's Major Domo above mentioned called Monsieur Fidelle Mr. Faithful but by the same figure of speech our Divines call the Prince of Darkness an Angel of Light For this Fellow is notoriously known and confest to be the falsest of Men. Yet being a Person of a very ready wit a lively fancy and naturally active in what he undertakes sometimes he openly acts on the part of France and publickly solicits Suffrages in this Republick in favour of that Crown sometimes he turns his Coat and is on the sudden all for the House of Austria This man from a petty Pedler of Italy is become excessive Rich which I mention as a circumstance whereby it may be the better known what a Man he is how fit to negotiate the Interests of his Imperial Majesty and to be the Confident and Councellor of the Ministers of State His Council sends into these parts And to make appear their Wisdom or Collution in this particular I must acquaint your Highness with a matter generally known throughout the Swisse Cantons That this man is owner of a Moity of two Swisse Companies now actually in the Service of the French under the command of his Son in Law An Ordinary Traffick among the Swisses That his most Christian Majesty hath within these three years bestowed on him a Rich Canonry in the higher Alsatia or Brisgow which one of his Sons is invested in That 't is this faithful Minister of the Imperial Court hath since the beginning of the last War bought all the Horses his Christian Majesty had need of for his Armies and caused them to be transported from the Port of Wasserbourgh in Germany where his Master hath a Bayliff and no small Power to the Port of Rochas in Swizzerland which is a place whereof his Master is Soveraign Prince That this man being the principal incendiary and Fomenter of all the troubles and broils hapned in Swisserland these last twenty years is so generally hated by all good people of that Nation that to procure the miscarriages of any affair of the Dyets of Baden there is no surer means than to make the Assembly suspect this man hath a hand or is any way concerned in it This appeared clearly in the affair of the County of Burgundy for Count Cazatti the Spanish Embassadour having very unadvisedly resolved to make use of this mans Counsel and Conduct in a matter of that importance that mighty affair was utterly ruin'd by that very means Notwithstanding all this man is the Confident and privy Councellour of all the Ministers his Imperial Majesty sends to that Nation and their first business when arrived there is to visit him to consult him and communicate to him all their instructions This about three years since occasion'd a pleasant passage at the Dyet of Baden An Envoy of his Imperial Majesty whom I purposely forbear to name according to the Custom of his Predecessors in that Employ and the Orders establisht went presently after his arrival to consult this Oracle going afterward to Baden the Envoy was strangely surprized to find that Gravelle the French
Embassadour had already Communicated to the Assembly all the private Instructions the Envoy had received from the Council at Vienna Thus that Envoy's Nogotiations came to nothing and so will all others his Imperial Majesty shall permit to be managed by the false and Corrupt Conduct of a Man so base and altogether unworthy the honour of that Employment The Sixth Instance 'T is an infallible Maxim that every Prince dispossest of his Estate may hold for certain there will be nothing omitted on the part of the Usurper or a Conquerour in possession to ruin him if possible and all his Generation Therefore 't is not strange that the Ministers of France though perhaps in this particular against the intention and without the order of his most Christian Majesty leave no stone unturned for the destruction of his Highness of Lorrain But it may surprize any man to find that the Imperial Governour of Phillipsbourgh should so openly and notoriously as he did have attempted the destruction of that Prince by the trap he caused cunningly to be made in the bridge of that place for that purpose through which the good Prince fell headlong to the bottom of the Ditch May we not justly infer this Governor had capitulated and agreed with some Minister of the Enemy to commit so vile a Treason May we not conclude so black an attempt against a Soveraign Prince Brother in Law to the Emperor and at that time representing the Person of His Imperial Majesty under the Character of Generalissimo of his Armies unquestionably merited exemplary punishment No honest Man but expected the Criminal should have been made a Sacrifice to Justice and Vengeance when he was taken and carried under a strong Guard to Vienna But all that was meer shew for the Favourers of France had that influence over the Council at Vienna that this Villain as the former past altogether unpunished The seventh Instance It appears publickly his most Christian Majesty since the Peace Arms by Sea and Land more powerfully than before and France being not sufficient for the Levies he makes he is come by his Ambassadour to the Center of the Empire to Frankford and to Prague to compleat them He causes Fortresses and Places of strength to be every day built on Saar the Rhine and all the Frontiers of Germany I think there needs no better evidence of his having a Design to reduce Almayn into a condition of disability of help it self when he thinks fit to attacque it if we consider farther that he causes his Commissaries to buy up all the Corn in Swabe and Franconia which is daily carried away into his Magazins in Lorrain Alsatia and the County of Burgundy Let us examine on the other side the conduct of the Head and Natural Defender of the Empire or rather of his unhappy Council This Prince hath since the Peace reformed all his Troops and in particular the Garrison of Rhinefeld which is of principal consequence Let us weigh the matter without prejudice He hath disbanded most of his old Regiments and kept on foot only part of the new A man must be blind and void of common sense who comprehends not that the Imperial Council hath in this particular acted by inteligence with the Council of France and by their direction to deprive the Emperor of the only Officers and Soldiers capable to defend him and to make them immediately go over into the service of France The matter hath fallen out according to their design and I leave it to any man versed in matters of State or of War to judge what a Conduct so extraordinary as this doth naturally signifie I should be too tedious to give you all the Instances I know whereby to prove the Emperour is certainly betray'd by the greater part of his Council But to be short let it be observed that the same Council that cleared the Steward of Commissary Capelliers the Traytors of Frankfort who would have furnished Philipsbourgh with Powder in the Siege and the Governour of Fribourgh The same Council that hath protected at Brestaw the Villain who abused the Duke of Saxe Eisnach and procur'd a Pension to be setled on him the same Council that hath setled the Major Domo of the Abbot S. Gall. to be the Imperial Minister in Switzerland and prevented the exemplary punishment of the Governour of Phillipsbourgh the same Council that advised His Imperial Majesty to reforme the greatest part of his Troops and in the manner I have told you this is the very Council hath clearly acquitted and approved of all the Conduct and publick Robberies and Insolencies of Commissary Capelliers and others and by causing His Imperial Majesty to sign the late shameful Peace have reduced the too good Prince into such a Condition that without a special Providence of God to the contrary no Prince will henceforth without much difficulty and caution relye on his Word or his Signet So that considering the Activity the Power and Interest of his Enemy with the credit and influence he hath in the Emperor's Council His Imperial Majesty as to his Elective Imperial Crown and I know not what to say of his Hereditary Dominions and Estates seems reduced to the Condition of a Chilperic or a Charles in France for he hath more than one Pepin or one Hugh Capet to deal with Nor do I see he hath any greater Authority than had those two unfortunate Kings who were violently thrust out of their Thrones which neither they nor any of their Posterity ever regained The better to convince the World how foully His Imperial Majesty is betrayed by his Council and in him all the Princes and States of the Empire and that there hath been of a long time a horrid and villainous Plot carried on against them with great cunning and caution give me leave to observe that it proceeds from the secret Engines of this Plot that His Imperial Majesty's two Sisters were Married to Princes both Robbed of their Dominions and Estates As to the Duke of Lorrain Husband of the Elder he continues to this day stript of all his Estates and if the late Peace hold I see little hopes of his Re-establishment And it cannot be deny'd but that the Duke of Newbourgh though restored by the Peace to the Dukedoms of Juliers and Berg was out of possession of both at the time of the Marriage of his Son to the Emperor's younger Sister The Reasons of these Marriages were that the Princesses being Married as they are to Princes uncapable to afford His Imperial Majesty any Succour at need neither His Majesty nor his Allies might have any benfit by the Marriages And that when ever France should be desirous of Peace there might be those in the Imperial Councils and Court whose Interest would oblige them to desire and procure it in order to their restoration and re-establishment in their Estates and to free themselves from the necessity of begging their Bread elsewhere It hath happened accordingly as to